First Sunday in Lent, Year A

Donna G. Joy

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

This week, in our Lenten Study Series, Making Sense of Scripture we will be looking at Chapter 1:What is the Bible? As we ponder this question one of the things we will be discovering is that the Bible is a collection of Books that offer confessions of faith, identifying who we are in relationship with God and in relationship with each other. The Bible, in other words, gives us our core identity.

I suggest, however, that we tend to look in other places to establish and define our identity. We often equate identity with function - He or she is an artist, or scientist, or doctor, or nurse; or relationship - wife, husband, partner, son, daughter, or grandparent. The problem with this way of establishing and defining our identity is when a person retires they may find themselves in the midst of an identity crisis. If a person’s whole identity is defined by their career, then who are they when they retire? Or if any of those defining relationships become broken the same crisis may occur.

An identity crisis occurs whenever we become unsure of our identity. Sometimes we equate identity with behaviour: He or she is a gossip, or not very nice, or really very nice, or smart, or not smart, or funny. We’ve all known the child whose identity is defined as the‘class clown’. The problem here is this narrowly defined sense of identity puts labels on people that minimize their greater fullness and depth. Often we define someone and assess their sense of worth by what they own. This, of course, is problematic for reasons that are obvious.

Walt Whitman wrote, “We contain multitudes,” referring to the fact that we all may be seen and experienced in radically different ways in different contexts. A parent may begin his or her day with helping their young children get ready for school (dressing, feeding, brushing teeth, combing hair), then go off to work where numerous people rely on their expertise in a particular field, then go to the gym for a rigorous work out, then after feeding dinner to their children and helping them into bed, visit with a friend on the phone

Sometimes we equate our identity with the paperwork that establishes we are who we say we are: driver’s licence, passport, credit cards, etc. The title of one film that came out last year was “Identity Thief”. I never saw the film myself, and according to the reviews it wasn’t very good, but apparently the storyline involves a woman who steals the identity of a man whose name is Sandy, and opens all sorts of credit cards in his name. The film is primarily about him tracking her down and reclaiming his identity. That is, the paperwork that establishes she is NOT who she was claiming to be, and confirms that he IS who he says he is.

I suggest that these are all superficial ways of establishing identity. Our truest identity lies much deeper. As Baptized followers of Christ, our identity is found in Scripture: that is, who we are in relationship with God and with each other. And, interestingly, there is much to be found in our readings this morning about our identity as the People of God, chosen to live in relationship with God through Jesus and each other.

Our first reading, I suspect, is one we all know. It is, the story of God placing Adam and Eve in the garden and instructing them to not eat from the tree of knowledge. They are tempted by the serpent to disobey God’s command. The serpent first encourages them to see God as not trustworthy… “Did God really say not to eat this?” And the serpent goes on to suggest that in forbidding them to eat this fruit God is holding them back from progress. He tells them that if they eat from this tree they will become like God / they will receive ultimate God-like knowledge. The serpent then invites them to establish themselves independent of God’s purpose, that is, establish their own identity independent of their relationship with God: “when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…”

In other words, who needs God when you can be like God all on your own?

So they go ahead and do what God has commanded them not to do. But immediately after doing so they become ashamed and try to hide themselves from God. If we read past this morning’s text we discover the gift of God’s grace in the midst of sinfulness and shame, as God sows garments of skin for Adam and Eve. This act of clothing the fragile and flawed human beings serves as a powerful symbol of God’s mercy and grace. So, in spite of the frailty, the shame and the precarious nature of the human condition outlined in this text, we see a powerful witness of a God who continues to remain in relationship with God’s creatures. Indeed, this story speaks of our identity, as people of God, created by God, placed in this garden, and called to look to God for guidance. This story speaks of our identity as people of God, called to live in relationship with God and each other. It speaks of a God whose Grace is made known to us in the midst of our sinfulness and frailty.

Our Gospel reading this morning is a continuation of the garden story, but this time the disobedience of Adam and Eve is overcome through the absolute obedience of Jesus. Before we launch into this morning’s particular reading, we first need to back up and remember Jesus’ baptism where the heavenly voice announces, “This is my Son, the Beloved.” Again, this is a statement about identity. Jesus’ core identity is Beloved by God. Through our baptism, our core identity is Beloved by God.

But immediately following his baptism, Jesus is tempted by the devil who treats Jesus as if the reality of his identity is in question: “If you really are the Son of God (that is, set apart as holy and called to reveal God’s character to the world)…. Then prove it!” (… a similar kind of temptation that was to occur on Jesus’ journey to the cross.) And in his attempts to derail Jesus’ faithfulness to God and his true identity as God’s beloved, the devil pulls out all the stops.

“If you really are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread!” When Jesus refuses to waver from his faithfulness to, and dependence on, God, the devil tries another maneuver as he says, “jump off this highest point of the temple, because if you really are the Son of God the angels will surely come to your rescue. If you trust God will feed you, then surely you will trust God to protect you from falling to your death.” And when this attempt to derail Jesus’ faithfulness to and dependence on God also fails, the devil promises to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus will worship him. In other words, if you really are chosen by God in this remarkably special way, prove it by using your power to your own benefit.

The arrogance on the part of the devil is quite remarkable. Clearly he assumes that all authority in the world belongs to him, to give to others as he chooses. But Jesus orders Satan to leave, saying “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” And then, once the devil has made his leave, the angels arrive and take care of him.

As we reflect on all this, it becomes clear that while the ‘content’ of the devil’s temptations include the capacity to turn stones to bread, call upon angels for safety, and the promise of power and dominion, each again is primarily about identity. Notice that the devil begins by trying to undermine the identity Jesus had just been given at his baptism in the previous scene. When the devil says, “If you are the son of God,” he is attempting to call that identity into question. As with his exchange with Adam and Eve, the devil seeks to rob Jesus of his God-given identity and replace it with a false one of his own making.

It is also interesting to note that Jesus resists this temptation by taking refuge in an identity established and secured through his relationship with God, a relationship that implies absolute dependence on God, and identification with all the realities of the human condition. Jesus will be content to be hungry as others are hungry, dependent on God’s Word and grace for all good things. He will be at risk and vulnerable as are all others, finding safety in the promises of God.

And he will refuse to define himself or seek power apart from his relationship with God, giving his worship and faithfulness only to the God who created and sustains him; the God in whom and through whom he finds his core identity.

So, with these two stories in mind: Adam and Eve in the garden disobeying God’s command, and God even still showing mercy on them in the midst of their sin and shame; and God’s own beloved Son, Jesus, reversing this pattern of disobedience in the wilderness…With these two stories we are reminded first and foremost that God loves us unconditionally and absolutely and THIS is what establishes our core identity as baptized followers of Jesus, beloved by God. Anything else that defines who we are is, at best, secondary.

And here’s the thing. Each and every day we are besieged by countless temptations that threaten to rob us of this core identity. Each day we are inundated with countless advertisements that attempt to create in us a sense of inadequacy, insecurity and wanting, undermining our God-given gift of identity with the promise that if we buy this car or use that deodorant or make our teeth whiter we will be acceptable. The message of the consumer driven culture is simple: you are not good enough. You’re not skinny enough, or smart enough, or pretty enough, or strong enough, or rich enough to deserve respect, love and acceptance. You are not beloved, and will only become beloved if you go out and purchase the goods and services and products that will make you become beloved – at least for a day or two until you need to purchase something else that has replaced that which made you worthy yesterday.

And here’s the thing. . . It’s a lie, a demonic attempt at a kind of identity theft far worse than the one we’ve been trained to fear.

Jesus offers us a way out, a way to safeguard our identity by embodying God’s love and promise.

On the cross Jesus defeats the evil that throws temptations our way each and every day; his temptation in the wilderness is a foretaste of the evil that was to be defeated through his death. Through our baptism, our core identity is Beloved by God, and our responsibility is to allow that identity to inform everything else that defines us.

I think it helps to recognize that the stories of the bible are not simply stories of so many thousands of years ago; they are our stories; they form the narrative of our lives. WE ARE Adam and Eve, tempted day in and day out to make decisions that derail our core identity as Beloved by God.

WE ARE followers of Jesus who on the cross defeated all evil and who empowers us to do the same. Jesus, as Paul writes in our epistle this morning, offers us an abundance of grace and life through his dependence on God for his identity. But Jesus also offers us an example, a refuge each and every day as we are inundated with the temptations of this culture in which we live.

The season of Lent is that time each year when we are called to follow Jesus’ way in overcoming that identity thief known as temptation. This season is a time to identify those places in our lives where we give in to these insidious and continuous temptations, to confess our sin to God who is loving and merciful, a God who forgives and renew, restore and refresh our core identity: Beloved by God and followers of Jesus.

Our psalmist this morning has reminded us that when we confess our transgressions, our sins, to the Lord we are forgiven; that God surrounds us with glad cries of deliverance; that God’s steadfast love surrounds those who trust in God’s promises and love. This psalm is a poem that celebrates the joy of one who has personally experienced the forgiveness of God. Indeed, we are created by God; Beloved by God; forgiven by God through Jesus on the Cross: This is who we are.

May this Season of Lent restore in us this core identity so that anything else which defines us may be grounded in this deep and abiding truth…   Amen.

‘So here’s the deal and this is what you get:

 

The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,

The banker’s bonus and the private jet,

Control and ownership of all the news,

An “in” in that exclusive one percent,

Who know the score, who really run the show,

With interest on every penny lent

And sweeteners for cronies in the know.

A straight arrangement between me and you,

No hell below or heaven high above,

You just admit it, and give me my due

And wake up from this foolish dream of love . . .’

 

But Jesus laughed, ‘You are not what you seem.

Love is the waking life, you are the dream.’

Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year

Malcolm Guite